G. Sundararaj

Agility through rapid prototyping technology in a manufacturing environment using a 3D printer

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of rapid prototyping (RP) technology using three dimensional (3D) printer for infusing agility in traditional manufacturing environment.Design/methodology/approach – The computer aided design (CAD) model of a knob of an electronics switch is developed using Pro/E software. Keeping this model as a reference, CAD models of new six knobs are developed. A 3D printer is used to build the prototypes of five of those CAD models. The receptivity of the practitioners over adopting CAD models and 3D printer for achieving agility is investigated.Findings – The sensitisation of the industry captains and employees of traditional manufacturing sector is the imperative for exploiting the power of 3D printer and achieving mass customisation.Originality/value – The paper reports an original research in which the practicality of using 3D printer is investigated with the objective of enabling the traditional manufacturing companies to imbibe agile characteri...

DESSAC: a decision support system for quantifying and analysing agility

This paper traces the origin and development of agile manufacturing. The industrial sectors which have embraced agility are todays winners in the competitive markets. This situation warrants the need of assessing the activities to be undertaken to acquire agility. For this purpose, this paper advocates the adoption of a 20 criteria agile model. In order to implement this model effectively, the agility level at which a company currently operates needs to be quantified. For this purpose, a quantification model incorporated with the 20 criteria agile model was adopted from literature and proposed after refinement. Applying this refined quantifying model in real time practice is a time consuming and tedious process. In order to overcome this difficulty, a decision support system named DESSAC (DEcision Support System for quantifying Agile Criteria) was developed. DESSAC was demonstrated to a group of competent personnel of an electronics switch manufacturing company situated in India. These personnel could operate DESSAC without any difficulty. Their feedback indicated its practical feasibility. In conclusion this paper points out the limitations of this research and the scope for pursuing further researches to overcome them.

TADS-ABC: a system for costing total agile design system

This paper has contributed a system to cost a model called total agile design system (TADS). Using TADS helps an organisation to design its products, processes and services to achieve agility by responding to the customers’ dynamic demands. After the description of TADS, a costing system named as TADS-ABC has been introduced in this paper. As the name implies, this system has been designed to cost TADS using activity based costing (ABC) principles. After highlighting the theory, the practical application of TADS-ABC has been illustrated by substituting the relevant data derived from a TADS implementation study. This implementation study was conducted in an electronics switches manufacturing company. After processing using TADS-ABC, the specific costs to be incurred towards TADS activities, agile criteria and evolving products in an agile manner in the above company could be arrived at. The experiences of conducting this research have been used to evolve a roadmap for successfully implementing TADS-ABC in contemporary organisations.

Achieving agility in manufacturing through finite element mould analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report a research which is carried out to examine the possibility of applying finite element analysis (FEA) and computer‐aided design/computer‐aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) concepts in a typical organisational environment to acquire the characteristics of agile manufacturing (AM).Design/methodology/approach – One of the components of a model of electronic switch manufactured by a company was chosen as the candidate of this research. Five new models of this component incorporated with agile characteristics were developed in electronic environment using Moldflow Plastics Insight software.Findings – The experiences of conducting this research being reported in this paper indicate the possibility of adopting FEA‐integrated CAD/CAM concept for achieving agility. However, certain hindrances have to be overcome to pursue deeper journey by the contemporary organisations in this direction.Research limitations/implications – This research is conducted on one component of a ...

Quantification of agility

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to design a tool for quantifying agility in organisations and test its practical compatibility.Design/methodology/approach – An agile quantification tool was designed initially by referring to a 20 criteria agile model. A scoring pattern with a maximum 1,000 marks was incorporated in the agile quantification tool which was then subjected to experimentation in an Indian electronics switches manufacturing company.Findings – A feedback session was conducted among the executives of the company to test the practical acceptability of the agile quantification tool. A statistical analysis of the study revealed that 90 per cent of their views were in favour of adopting it.Research limitations/implications – The marks allotted against the 20 agile criteria incorporated in the agile quantification tool are not supported with research findings. This leads to the questioning of the rationale behind allotting the marks against these criteria. In order to overcome this limitation, ...

Amalgamation of mass customisation and agile manufacturing concepts: the theory and implementation study in an electronics switches manufacturing company

This paper reports a research which was pursued with the purpose of indicating the need of amalgamating mass customisation and agile manufacturing principles for achieving competitiveness in organisations. The research findings and observations on these principles were used to design a model named as agile customisation programme. The implementation study of this programme was conducted in an electronics switches manufacturing company situated in India. The practical implications of this programme were studied by gathering feedback from the executives of this company. The details of these works are briefly presented in this paper. Further, the practical implications were used to propose a roadmap. Future researchers may adopt this roadmap and implement this programme in various types and sizes of companies. The performance of this programme in those companies shall be measured using agile manufacturing metrics such as responsiveness, time compression, quality improvement and profitability.

Total agile design system in contemporary organisational scenario

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the adoption of computer aided design (CAD) technology for enabling the contemporary organizations to acquire agile characteristics.Design/methodology/approach – A model called total agile design system (TADS) was designed. Subsequently, a survey was conducted among 25 industry captains. By referring to their reactions, a roadmap for successfully implementing TADS has been evolved.Findings – The results of literature survey indicated that both research and practicing communities are yet to exploit CAD and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) technologies effectively for acquiring agile characteristics in organizations. The survey conducted among the industry captains indicated that the TADS model would bridge CAD/CAM and AM concepts in organizations.Research limitations/implications – The findings of this research were based on the survey conducted among industry captains of organizations situated only in Coimbatore city of India. Yet these findings would ...